The Associated Press

Justin Bieber's "Believe" is the year's top-selling debut album.

Nielsen SoundScan reports sales of 374,000 copies following its release last week, giving the 18-year-old Canadian pop singer the fourth No. 1 album and the best sales week of his young career. "Believe" also debuted at No. 1 in 29 other countries.

The album topped Madonna's "MDNA" as the year's top debut thus far and is the best-selling first-week release since Drake's "Take Care" came out in December. Kenny Chesney's "Welcome to the Fishbowl" followed Bieber last week with 193,000 albums sold.

Bieber has sold more than 15 million albums since he put out his first record in 2009.

Fans have been impatiently awaiting the release of "Believe," viewing the video for the title single 86 million times on YouTube and putting four songs in the Top 40 of Billboard's Hot 100 chart simultaneously.